Community

This thread is for discussion of magicthegathering.com's Magic Arcana, Card of the Day, and Daily Decks features for the month of July, 2011.

Valakut is going to take over the world!! :o heh ;p
one thing i never did understand was why Valakut wasn't made a legendary land

People need to update their Valakut lists. This is the list I'm running: tappedout.net/mtg-decks/post-nph-valakut...

I  welcome feedback (I think my sideboad needs work), but the lists that the pros are running are behind on the times if you ask me.

People were saying that we didn't need to be afraid of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle after the bans on Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic - because the situation changed since people were saying it would dominate after Jace 2.0 was banned. But it seems like the new meta has allowed better Valakut decks to be designed.

Bye-bye Tariel wallpaper. 

I "told" them they needed to get this wallpaper-ized. Due to how quickly they gave it to us, I think they already knew :P.

Been meaning to get around to saying this, but they should really give us wallpapers in 1920x1080. It's the only resolution my friends and I run our monitors at.

Jul 1, 2011 -- 2:48PM, Jacarr wrote:

Been meaning to get around to saying this, but they should really give us wallpapers in 1920x1080. It's the only resolution my friends and I run our monitors at.

I concur three days later.

Also I like the new arts for the Ajani and Bolas. Ajani's all RAWR IM ANGRY and Bolas is like HAHAHA I AM THE VILLAIN AND IF DRAGONS GREW FACIAL HAIR I WOULD BE TWIRLING MY MOUSTACHE!

Jul 4, 2011 -- 11:13PM, Nyktos wrote:

Jul 1, 2011 -- 2:48PM, Jacarr wrote:

Been meaning to get around to saying this, but they should really give us wallpapers in 1920x1080. It's the only resolution my friends and I run our monitors at.

I concur three days later.

Also I like the new arts for the Ajani and Bolas. Ajani's all RAWR IM ANGRY and Bolas is like HAHAHA I AM THE VILLAIN AND IF DRAGONS GREW FACIAL HAIR I WOULD BE TWIRLING MY MOUSTACHE!

I'm surprised he doesn't have some kind of surrogate facial hair, like a fin around his mouth in the shape of Evil Spock's van **** goatee. Even Fin Fang Foom has whiskers.

It deserves to be said, this art is really good. Definitely an improvement over Elspeth vs Tezzeret, where I felt both pieces couldn't live up to the originals.

I know it's not a new announcement, but man that Duel Deck pairing seems oddly placed every time I see it.  Ajani vs Nicol Bolas was the climax of the Alara block, two years ago!. It made sense then for them to be dueling.  Now it seems about as relevant as Kamahl vs Akroma.

Awesome art for the two planeswalkers, although Nicol Bolas is slowly morphing from actual dragon to Kamigawa snake with each new picture.

The quality of the sketch art for Pride Guardian gave me an idea. What would be a good way to do alternate art cards with early concept art? Just brainstorming: if premium commons came with alternate art (and rough pieces are a good way of getting it without commissioning new work) they would be much less of a let-down. Preferably foil frames with non-foil art, but that's a surprisingly more complicated process than full-foil.

Li Meng's mono black control deck makes my Johnny feel good, because the flavour is consistent (its a mono-colour deck that is actually mono-coloured, for one) and cos it has some nice singletons, 2-ofs and 3-ofs in the deck, instead of just playsets. Got a cool sideboard too ^_^

Pity I will never have three Phyrexian Obliterators  

The "complete" spoiler is still missing some cards, if I'm not mistaken.  Red's missing a card somewhere(Other sites are saying Circle of Flame), and the Throne, Scepter, and Crown of Empires are missing from the artifacts page.

Just sayin'.

Also: I just realized I have all the cards for the mono-black control decklist.  I wonder if I should slap it together and run it at FNM this week, or just draft my final godbye game to Scars block...?

Damn I just watch the video on the arcana archive for the seventh and I have to say that guy has some major skills.

The "complete" spoiler is also missing Terramorphic Expanse.

No TE in the core set? Bad Wizards! No biscuit for you! Bad!


Seriously, what the hell? TE should have remained in the core set until the end of time.  

Jul 7, 2011 -- 8:01AM, milo_bloom wrote:

The "complete" spoiler is also missing Terramorphic Expanse.

No TE in the core set? Bad Wizards! No biscuit for you! Bad!


Seriously, what the hell? TE should have remained in the core set until the end of time.  

TE has been replaced with Manalith to play nice with Metalcraft, as opposed to Landfall.

Jul 7, 2011 -- 9:52AM, NEStomato wrote:

Jul 7, 2011 -- 8:01AM, milo_bloom wrote:

The "complete" spoiler is also missing Terramorphic Expanse.

No TE in the core set? Bad Wizards! No biscuit for you! Bad!


Seriously, what the hell? TE should have remained in the core set until the end of time.  

TE has been replaced with Manalith to play nice with Metalcraft, as opposed to Landfall.

With the ever-so-slight exception that TE is a staple and Manalith is a heaping turd.

Manalith is unlimited-use mana accel with fixing attached, while TE is just fixing that sets you back a turn.

They're both fine.

This is the best arcana ever. Please give us more art related stuff like this in the future!

Jul 7, 2011 -- 10:11AM, NEStomato wrote:

Manalith is unlimited-use mana accel with fixing attached, while TE is just fixing that sets you back a turn.

They're both fine.

TE can come down on turn one, thins your deck, is proof against removal (sacrifice it in response), is immune to countering, encourages playing basic lands (not everyone sees this as a positive, but it is nice to see some love for the little guys) and can count as a land slot in your deck.

Manalith comes down on turn three (unless you have some other form of acceleration), is much easier to destroy than a land, can be countered, and counts as a spell slot. The only things going for it, other than metalcraft (though there are much better artifacts for that. Metalcraft really wants something cheaper than 3 mana) is that it is actual acceleration, and that it can fix for multiple colors.

Personally, I don't think it would be such a big deal to have given us both. Neither one is really too powerful. But if they have to only choose one, I wish they'd choose Terramorphic every time.

Jul 7, 2011 -- 11:25AM, Landiur wrote:

This is the best arcana ever. Please give us more art related stuff like this in the future!

Agreed.
That guy is what a true artist is.

Jul 7, 2011 -- 3:46PM, chronego wrote:

Jul 7, 2011 -- 10:11AM, NEStomato wrote:

Manalith is unlimited-use mana accel with fixing attached, while TE is just fixing that sets you back a turn.

They're both fine.

TE can come down on turn one, thins your deck, is proof against removal (sacrifice it in response), is immune to countering, encourages playing basic lands (not everyone sees this as a positive, but it is nice to see some love for the little guys) and can count as a land slot in your deck.

Manalith comes down on turn three (unless you have some other form of acceleration), is much easier to destroy than a land, can be countered, and counts as a spell slot. The only things going for it, other than metalcraft (though there are much better artifacts for that. Metalcraft really wants something cheaper than 3 mana) is that it is actual acceleration, and that it can fix for multiple colors.

Personally, I don't think it would be such a big deal to have given us both. Neither one is really too powerful. But if they have to only choose one, I wish they'd choose Terramorphic every time.

Thank you. I haven't gotten back to the forums for a few days, and this is exactly my thinking. Manalith isn't terrible (there's plenty of precedent), but to take out TE is just mind-boggling. 

And I still think they should start printing it on the basic land sheet so it shows up in the booster pack's landslot. 

I predict Valve will win because Gabe will just eat all their digital cards over Steam as a Simic Sky Swallower in the blue/green ramp deck. And yes, I know this post will delay Episode 3 by a few more months but I just can't help it.

Go Team Gas Powered Games! I know you can pull a win!

Team Valve will win because they have plenty of experience--they're used to having fun with science, and everyone knows that any sufficiently analyzed Magic is indistinguishable from science!

I'm actually more excited about that Garruk/Liliana image! =O

But yeah, I think Valvakut will do pretty good.

I have to presume Blizzard is absent because they have their own TCG?

I still don't know why Wizards use this Soldier token. It's not that it looks bad, but come on, we got what in my opinion is the best art for a soldier token ever made in Scars of Mirrodin and I would hate it if we never saw that again. The soldier doesn't carry the flavor of the set, not nearly enough to stop it from seeing print in a core set.

Here is the art in case you don't know / have never seen it:
Spoiler: Show

I'm pretty sure, without a Thran Lens in play, Volrath's Stronghold is going to have a hard time making a true Pentavite token, since you have to choose a color. 

Sweekstakes! Boo! Too bad there is no facebook "thumbs down" button. Only US residents are able to enter

Jul 12, 2011 -- 10:22PM, wants5x wrote:

Sweekstakes! Boo! Too bad there is no facebook "thumbs down" button. Only US residents are able to enter

Yeah I'm always disappointed with these contests. I get all excited with them until I see that in the official rules.
They should, at least, put a visible warning about that.

Jul 13, 2011 -- 3:58AM, Deeo wrote:

Jul 12, 2011 -- 10:22PM, wants5x wrote:

Sweekstakes! Boo! Too bad there is no facebook "thumbs down" button. Only US residents are able to enter

Yeah I'm always disappointed with these contests. I get all excited with them until I see that in the official rules.
They should, at least, put a visible warning about that.

U.S. and Canadian residents, to be exact. Sadly for me, that excludes Quebec. I blame my government and all their pointless French laws that has been preventing me from being a part of anything promotional that doesn't come from Quebec...

I don't know why I even bother looking up eligibility rules for these things. Stupid ocean.

Jul 12, 2011 -- 6:47AM, tjman543 wrote:

I'm pretty sure, without a Thran Lens in play, Volrath's Stronghold is going to have a hard time making a true Pentavite token, since you have to choose a color. 

The Laboratory also makes 2/2's that don't fly!  They're overweight Pentavites, I guess.

The registration form has the apt/suite# as a required form, and I'm sure many, many people have house addresses and don't have that. I just put a space in that field, but still kinda odd bit of programming there. 

No Gobbonade in the R/B deck?  What the hell?

Jul 13, 2011 -- 9:29PM, Qmark wrote:

No Gobbonade in the R/B deck?  What the hell?

There are only five goblin cards in the deck, making your chances of being able to use a Goblin Grenade pretty dicey.

I still can't forgive them for how terrible they made what the Illusion deck was supposed to be.

This is one case where I like the sketch WAY more than I like the final art.

Does anyone get how the Daily Deck qualifies as combo?  All I see is  Kuldotha Forgemaster + 2 other artifacts = BSC; a fairly strong play,  but is it enough to make this a "combo/control deck"?  Are they counting  Tezzeret as a one-card combo or something?  If so, I'd regard this as  dirty pool.

Jul 5, 2011 -- 8:15AM, Amarsir wrote:

I know it's not a new  announcement, but man that Duel Deck pairing seems oddly placed every  time I see it.  Ajani vs Nicol Bolas was the climax of the Alara block,  two years ago!. It made sense then for them to be dueling.  Now  it seems about as relevant as Kamahl vs Akroma.

You mean Kamahl vs. Ixidor or Phage vs. Akroma, but I would love to see  those as Duel Decks even now (and 8 years is slightly different from 2).

Jul 17, 2011 -- 9:56PM, willpell wrote:

Does anyone get how the Daily Deck qualifies as combo?  All I see is  Kuldotha Forgemaster + 2 other artifacts = BSC; a fairly strong play,  but is it enough to make this a "combo/control deck"?  Are they counting  Tezzeret as a one-card combo or something?  If so, I'd regard this as  dirty pool.

Jul 5, 2011 -- 8:15AM, Amarsir wrote:

I know it's not a new  announcement, but man that Duel Deck pairing seems oddly placed every  time I see it.  Ajani vs Nicol Bolas was the climax of the Alara block,  two years ago!. It made sense then for them to be dueling.  Now  it seems about as relevant as Kamahl vs Akroma.

You mean Kamahl vs. Ixidor or Phage vs. Akroma, but I would love to see  those as Duel Decks even now (and 8 years is slightly different from 2).

Maybe they define "combo" as "winning by specific cards"? So that a deck that wins by getting out a Blightsteel Colossus, by any means, is more combo than aggro? I don't really agree with the definition, but it's the only way I can see this being a combo deck.

Also: Yes, please! to the Phage vs. Akroma Duel Deck!

Many a control deck wins by getting a Simic Sky Swallower out by any means necessary - most commonly by waiting until turn 9 to hardcast it with Counterspell backup or the like.  So that definition would fail.

Jul 17, 2011 -- 9:51PM, Landiur wrote:

This is one case where I like the sketch WAY more than I like the final art.

I agree. I love the final art too, but the color washes out the details.

Um... Can someone explain how the card of the day text for Sorin makes sense? Assuming the mending didn't happen too long ago, there should be plenty of oldwalkers roaming the multiverse as old as or older than Sorin. Before the mending, being of a race that had a long lifespan didn't really distinguish you from other planeswalkers... Or am I wrong?

@ Landiur:  I admit to being curious myself how Sorin fits into the current planeswalker paradigm.  It'd be one thing if he'd been a thousands-of-years-old vampire whose Spark awakened post-Mending, but that's clearly not the case.  And it definitely hasn't been thousands of years since the Mending, since Venser was perfectly mortal and is in both Future Sight and Scars of Mirrodin.  So Sorin is either another surviving oldwalker who was simply depowered (like Nicol Bolas, only he didn't go all schizo over it, which makes sense given that UBR is a color combo far more consistent with being bat#$&% insane than mono-black, though it can happen there too), or he was some sort of anomalous pre-Mending example of what would become the default form of planeswalker post-Mending.  Or, most likely, someone didn't quite think the concept through when they wrote his backstory...I for one would be perfectly fine with that, as it's not like previous awesome characters such as Taysir and Tevesh Szat haven't had a few slightly stupid assumptions in their conceptualization, which are worth glossing over in view of their overall coolness.

Warstorm Surge - Back when I was writing, I took one look at the art description of this card and went completely overboard with excitement.  I loved the idea of the Core Set doing some of the long-neglected followup on Future Sight and Planechase, and tried to work allusions to the known planes into my submissions wherever I could.  Sadly, I don't believe any such examples get through...I like to imagine this was because there was a continuity manager somewhere in Wizards that went through the submissions scrubbing things that contradicted yet-to-be-revealed canon info for upcoming sets, but this is probably a distinctly overblown fantasy on my part.

The Magic Celebration sounds interesting.

Although, I'm surprised there's not a link to a page explaiing what Mini-Master is. I know I've read about it, but I don't have the greatest memory.

Ooh, this sounds like a ton of fun. I just wish my local store was doing it :/

 T-shirt sizes are L and XL.

Stereotypes exist for a reason, apparently.  :P

The Magic Celebration sounds like a lot of fun- I especially want to find out what these bonus items for "Duels: 2012" are.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there are any events happening in Iraq this year.
Oh well, maybe next time. 

Jul 20, 2011 -- 11:46PM, Glasir wrote:

 T-shirt sizes are L and XL.

Stereotypes exist for a reason, apparently.  :P

This.

I also wanted to actually look at the shirt, you know.

That manaless dredge deck is a thing of wonder and terror. I love that the game can be twisted that far. I also love that it was a sensible metagame call given how little graveyard hate was expected, and it probably won't be the sensible thing to play a few weeks later

Is there any chance to have the Wallpaper of the Week be Aegis Angel sometime? I've really fallen in love with this card and the art is nothing short of mindblowing, a wallpaper sized version of it would be incredible

Jul 22, 2011 -- 6:51AM, alextfish wrote:

That manaless dredge deck is a thing of wonder and terror. I love that the game can be twisted that far. I also love that it was a sensible metagame call given how little graveyard hate was expected, and it probably won't be the sensible thing to play a few weeks later

The zero-turn HulkFlash godhand still takes the cake for ridiculous, though.

Guess who's back! (back back)

Back again! ('gain 'gain)

Malkov's back! (back back)

Tell a friend! (friend friend)       

I don't care for the set name one bit (definitely came out of a focus  group or something), but a new Sorin excites me greatly and the picture  is pure epicness.  (Two black pw's in one block?  Very strange.)

Jul 24, 2011 -- 9:24PM, willpell wrote:

I don't care for the set name one bit (definitely came out of a focus  group or something), but a new Sorin excites me greatly and the picture  is pure epicness.  (Two black pw's in one block?  Very strange.)

Ony reason I see why there may be 2 black walkers in the same block is Wotc is making up for all the years of meh Black planeswalkers.

2 black sets in a row? take it easy, WotC...

Hmm, if they were going to have a new Sorin so soon, wouldn't it have made more sense to update Liliana in M12?  Or are has she been swept under the rug like that horrible Elf-Walker? (Personally I think the new Garruk is better for elf decks than she is... which I find rather amusing.)

The card (hopefully) this art goes on could say "Tap: You lose the game" and I would still want playsets of it. Just awesome.

In the 2nd article about his shirts.....Maro refers to Innistrad block briefly within the context of how magic blocks allow players to personalize their experience by choosing which side(Scars), or which guild(Ravnica), or which shard(Alara) they will pilot to victory.  If he's playing around that's fine, I get it, it probably means nothing. 

I have a notion though, that this new block could be about who you choose to fight AGAINST.  For example:  I play a two or three color deck, who's theme is to outright hate on two other colors.  Yes, its insular.  Yes, its mean, but it can work, even in constructed where it pays to be able to respond effectively to any other color combination. 

One of my key witnesses to the possibility of this being the new theme coming up is the Crusaders from the Mirrodin Besieged set, both of which have protection from two other colors.  Not to mention the swords(which really need no mention at all)  We also saw a mono-red common creature that hates its own color.  It's been done before, but I suspect there's more to it this time than WoTC popping out metagame commons.  Another hint is perhaps in the Phyrexian Mana cost cards not showing any particular allegiance to their base color(especially in standard *cough* Dismember *cough*)

I'm sure somebody can take this idea apart in a few words, but It'd be cool to see what others think about this!

Jul 24, 2011 -- 10:25PM, Tap4Mana wrote:

Hmm, if they were going to have a new Sorin so soon, wouldn't it have made more sense to update Liliana in M12?  Or are has she been swept under the rug like that horrible Elf-Walker? (Personally I think the new Garruk is better for elf decks than she is... which I find rather amusing.)

Judging from the pic they used when they introduced Innistrad, we're getting a new Liliana also. So they couldn't really update either without it being weird.

This has me incredibly excited, by the way. Sorin is my favorite planeswalker in concept, so I'm dying to see his (hopefully more playable) new card. And a new Liliana, also... Innistrad block is saturated with swampwater and I couldn't be more eager to see it.

Jul 24, 2011 -- 9:24PM, willpell wrote:

I don't care for the set name one bit (definitely came out of a focus  group or something), but a new Sorin excites me greatly and the picture  is pure epicness.  (Two black pw's in one block?  Very strange.)

How do we even know, there are gonna be 2 black 'walkers in the block? I mean... monoblack. They may be multicolour. Say Liliana black/blue and Sorin black/red... In this sense, how many red 'walkers were there in the Shards block? Anyway, I'm quite curious what turns out of this.

Jul 25, 2011 -- 1:47AM, WorshipJozin wrote:

Jul 24, 2011 -- 9:24PM, willpell wrote:

I don't care for the set name one bit (definitely came out of a focus  group or something), but a new Sorin excites me greatly and the picture  is pure epicness.  (Two black pw's in one block?  Very strange.)

How do we even know, there are gonna be 2 black 'walkers in the block? I mean... monoblack. They may be multicolour. Say Liliana black/blue and Sorin black/red... In this sense, how many red 'walkers were there in the Shards block? Anyway, I'm quite curious what turns out of this.

If neither the new Sorin nor the new Liliana is mono-black, I shall weep openly and without shame. Mono-black has the fewest planeswalkers, and the least playable ones to boot. But more importantly, if Sorin has been around for centuries and has never picked up a second color, why should he now? Liliana could go /Blue (she was really close with Jace, and apparently zombies are going to be in Blue also in Innistrad), but Sorin should stay mono-black unless they give a really good reason for him to break his centuries-long streak. A really good reason.

Well, I didn't say it necessarily has to be so. And I definitely agree that monoblack 'walkers could use some reinforcement. So, we'll see. I don't know about Sorin, I guess he can stay monoblack but I definitely don't expect two monoblack 'walkers in one block. And what you say about Liliana are exactly my thoughts behind her going black/blue...

Maybe we get a new mono B Liliana and a new multicolored Sorin. At least to me this seems to make sense because we already have a mono B Sorin in M12.
In terms of flavor, Sorin had some cooperation with Nissa in Rise of the eldrazi, so maybe he could be BG. Green also would be a good choice because it has the fewest Planeswalker's: 

Green: 4 (3 Mono G)
Black: 5 (2 Mono B)
White: 6 (4 Mono W)
Blue: 7 (4 Mono U)
Red: 8 (4 Mono R) 

The list shows that black has the fewest monocolored PW so i definitely think at least one of the two will be Mono B. 

Yes, it would be good to have a new (and hopefully playable) monoblack 'walker. Liliana going black/blue would make sense, Sorin had some cooperation with Nissa but to me it would make more sense if Nissa went green/black than Sorin going black/green. Anyway, it's so much about speculation at this moment...

Interesting and more interesting. BOTH Liliana and Sorin in the Innistrad Block. So this could lead to a power grab between the two Black planeswalkers. So when does betting begin for "roll" having Garruk or Nissa Revane? The two green planewalkers are chasing their respective Black counterparts. 

Jul 25, 2011 -- 10:41AM, magicjames wrote:

Interesting and more interesting. BOTH Liliana and Sorin in the Innistrad Block. So this could lead to a power grab between the two Black planeswalkers.

...and then the makeup sex?

Jul 25, 2011 -- 10:41AM, magicjames wrote:

Interesting and more interesting. BOTH Liliana and Sorin in the Innistrad Block. So this could lead to a power grab between the two Black planeswalkers. So when does betting begin for "roll" having Garruk or Nissa Revane? The two green planewalkers are chasing their respective Black counterparts. 

Jul 25, 2011 -- 11:05AM, Qmark wrote:

...and then the makeup sex?

Jul 25, 2011 -- 6:23AM, ChaosK wrote:

Maybe we get a new mono B Liliana and a new multicolored Sorin. At least to me this seems to make sense because we already have a mono B Sorin in M12.
In terms of flavor, Sorin had some cooperation with Nissa in Rise of the eldrazi, so maybe he could be BG. Green also would be a good choice because it has the fewest Planeswalker's: 

Green: 4 (3 Mono G)
Black: 5 (2 Mono B)
White: 6 (4 Mono W)
Blue: 7 (4 Mono U)
Red: 8 (4 Mono R) 

The list shows that black has the fewest monocolored PW so i definitely think at least one of the two will be Mono B. 

Except I think Liliana is much more likely to go multicolored than Sorin. Liliana and Jace were dating (poor girl... who knows what he did to her mind?) and she's definitely on a quest for knowledge (a very specific knowledge, but it still counts). Sorin, on the other hand, has been around for centuries and is still mono-black. He'd need something very compelling to make him take up another color NOW. About the only thing I could see would be going /Red, to match up with Innistrad vampires, but that still doesn't make much sense unless in his centuries of travel he's never been to Innistrad before (something I just can't believe, as it seems to be THE place for Black mages to chillax). Him going /Green because of Nissa just seems weird to me, though I didn't read the book. According to Duels, however, Nissa went /Black, so I'd say Sorin corrupted her, not she corrupted him.

Nitpick: The newer Grim Lavamancer art was commissioned for the Judge Gift Program, not for Fire and Lightning.

Jul 25, 2011 -- 9:07PM, CommanderJim wrote:

Nitpick: The newer Grim Lavamancer art was commissioned for the Judge Gift Program, not for Fire and Lightning.

You're probably right, but you can't be absolutely sure. All you actually know is that the first time it was used publicly was on the Judge promo. That doesn't necessarily speak to what it was originally commissioned for.

...anyone buy that? No? Okay, fine. I'll correct the arcana tomorrow.

On the note of new art for reprinted cards, the one I've really been wondering about was Flametongue Kavu in Commander. I'm pretty certain that it's the only reprint in the decks that has completely new art. I thought that this for sure meant it would be in M12, but it isn't. Mysterious...

Nitpick: Today's Arcana cites Jim Nelson as the artist responsible for the F&L/2012 Grim Lavamancer, when it's actually Michael Sutfin.

Figured I'd let you know now so you only have make one trip to the interwebs for corrections instead of two.

Dang, I hadn't seen the art for the old Lavamancer. I really like it quite a bit more than the new one. 

But the whole story behind the card was pretty cool  

Nitpick: In today's Arcana, the captions for the two full art images of Grim Lavamancer have "Jim Nelson" where they should have the name of the card.    (i.e. " Jim Nelson | Art by Jim Nelson" should be " Grim Lavamancer | Art by Jim Nelson" / " Grim Lavamancer | Art by Michael Sutfin".)

Jul 26, 2011 -- 6:46AM, orcishartillery wrote:

Nitpick: In today's Arcana, the captions for the two full art images of Grim Lavamancer have "Jim Nelson" where they should have the name of the card.    (i.e. " Jim Nelson | Art by Jim Nelson" should be " Grim Lavamancer | Art by Jim Nelson" / " Grim Lavamancer | Art by Michael Sutfin".)

Shh. That's just a super-secret spoiler for the Jim Nelson planeswalker card in Innistrad.

The Favors would be even more on the nose if they both incremented your life by minus-power and plus-toughness, resulting in "gain 2 life" and "lose 2 life" instead of "gain life equal to the toughness bonus" on one and "lose life equal to the toughness bonus" on the other.  But I guess they wanted more seductive numbers than that.

Regarding the Innistrad block planeswalker speculation:  I think It is entirely possible that one of the mono black planeswalkers will pull a Tezzeret and add a color. Most likely Liliana, as mentioned before, Sorin is centuries old so I think he is pretty secure in his philosophy on life and thus his color will probably stay the same (this is entirely based on evidence from the story however, Sorin could be better with another color gameplay-wise, I'm not really sure how to analyze how he'd function). But after seeing Scars block's story shift so dramatically, from the peaceful mirrodin eventually becoming fully infected (haha) by Phyrexia, I think Innistrad will do something of the opposite. I think Innistrad block will begin with a corrupt, dark world and by the end of the block be saved somehow. Planeswalker-wise, I think that the world of Innistrad (or city, I think I read that it's actually a city) being saved will create the opportunity for Ajani to return in shining glory. I don't think the Magic developers would outright remove only one formerly core set planeswalker while retooling or changing the sets of others. As far as being playable, Ajani (Goldmane) wasn't the best planeswalker, but he was somewhat playable, certainly more so than the old Chandra (in my opinion anyway) and Chandra got changed to be pretty good. I think the dark imagery and presence of the two black planeswalkers revealed in Innistrad block is setting the stage for Ajani's return as a contrast to the darkness. (These are just my own opinions and theories, I find myself thinking about the story of Magic: the Gathering almost as much as the game itself.)

Jul 25, 2011 -- 3:47PM, chronego wrote:

Him going /Green because of Nissa just seems weird to me, though I didn't read the book. According to Duels, however, Nissa went /Black, so I'd say Sorin corrupted her, not she corrupted him.

Nissa starting playing with black magic when she saw the Lorwyn elves so it has nothing to do with Sorin. And I do agree that Liliana is more likely to go gold.

Anyway, I love the new art for Time Walk. It is beautiful. The new Force of Will also looks really cool.

That time walk art just made me change my desktop background for the first time in 4 years.  I hands down think it's the finest piece of magic artwork ever.  The FoW is amazing too.  I feel that at least the force needs to be printed with this art as a FTV, and I'd love to see a gold bordered collectors edition set of the alternate art power 9. 

Are there larger images available? The FoW is particularly awesome!

Instead of using that art as the new Time Walk art, they should've said, wait a minute, we need to make a cool blue mythic rare that deals with time to use this art on instead. It's kind of a shame that such interesting art basically won't be used on anything.

Force of Will - good call keeping it bright red. Judge promo please?

I wish they would give a regular sized Force/Time walk just for attending.

The art for time walk is one of the finest pieces of art I've ever seen in the game.

where do I get these and the other power9 alternate arts on a good resolution for a wallpaper?

I have to say, I love the idea of a dark, twisted plane, having light brought to it by some savior/hero. We just saw a place trashed and mad all evil in Scars block, as well as a LOT in popular fantasy in general, heroes and peoples becoming corrupted by sinister forces. Would be a change of pace to have a twisted place be brought a dash of light and order. 
As for planeswalkers, I raise a doubtful eyebrow we'd see two mono black walkers in the same block, though I know we've seen walkers share colors in the past (three red walkers in shards of Alara alone) As for Lilliana being black blue? Not too sure i'd gamble on that, we JUST got a black blue walker in Mirrodin besieged, as artifact centered as he was. Perhaps Black/red, or even black white. Sorrin always struck me as someone who might fit very well into a Black white orzhov/mafia styled group. I know he's "centuries old" But planeswalkers cards aren't always set-in-stone representations of everything about that character.

Jul 28, 2011 -- 6:34PM, Areaman wrote:

I have to say, I love the idea of a dark, twisted plane, having light brought to it by some savior/hero. We just saw a place trashed and mad all evil in Scars block, as well as a LOT in popular fantasy in general, heroes and peoples becoming corrupted by sinister forces. Would be a change of pace to have a twisted place be brought a dash of light and order.

Why's everyone saying that just because Innistrad is Gothic Horror and seems to be saturated in black mana it's "dark, twisted" or "evil"? Maybe the zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, creepy dolls, whatever else are all just really friendly but misunderstood. Maybe this is the happiest plane we've ever seen, since Lorwyn.
Don't buy it? Me neither. Bring on the evil!

Anyone else notice that Oliver Ruel's sideboard only lists 13 cards? Did he use 2 basic lands to fill it or something, or are we not being shown some cards?

It's been that way since the original coverage, propagated in all subsequent listings (Daily deck, decks of the week, and Top Decks).  It's a typo entering the decklists, which happens when it's one guy's job to enter 300 lists (especially when there are multiple language versions involved).  I don't think there's a good way to know thie missing cards unless someone else with the list shares them.  

Honestly that Elf deck is terrible. Lots of cards not having to do with Elves or not helpful at all. Way too much of a mix. Like the sideboard with the one elf with infect???

Do not need 20 lands in an Elf deck. With the archdruid, Llanowar Elves and Joraga Wildspeaker you can shorten the forests down to 14. I have never had more than that in an elf deck and have no problems.

Also, it should stick strictly to Elves. What's with the random other creatures. Get a bunch of elves up, boost them up with Archdruid's, Overwhelming Stampede, Overrun and also throw in a uest for Renewal and Beastmaster Ascension and you have an unstoppable swarm of Elves with trample and plenty of power. Opponents won't know what to do. 

(for arcana announcing dark ascension)
I bet the third set will be nicknamed "roll"

Not much longer to wait for this one. Its nearly 2012...in less than 3 hours. 

Dec 31, 2011 -- 6:14PM, WolfDogMoon wrote:

Not much longer to wait for this one. Its nearly 2012...in less than 3 hours. 

What?